Liberals and Conservatives

Liberals postulate that the government should act towards ensuring equality for all. The government has a responsibility of protecting human rights, civil rights and eliminating social ills. Therefore, the government’s major role is to ensure that no one is needy. Generally, they insist on the necessity of the government to handle difficulties. (Graham et.al 2009)

Conservatives emphasize on individual liberty, personal responsibility and free markets. In this case the government’s role should be to empower people to be able to pursue their goals and solve their own problems. (Lakoff, 1997)

Both liberals and conservatives have various policies. The first policy we will talk about is death penalty. According to liberals, death penalty is ‘cruel and unusual’ and it should be abolished as every instance such an execution is made, there is a risk of killing an innocent person. However, conservatives believe that death penalty is the ideal punishment for any murderer who has taken away an innocent life. (Graham et.al 2009)

The second policy is the Embryonic Stem Cell Research. According to the liberals, using embryonic stem cells for research is needful and ethical and the government should fund such scientists as it goes a long way in discovering cures for different ailments. The embryos used don’t have human features hence the process won’t be termed as murder and they are believed to have a large potential in curing chronic diseases.Conservatives believe that human life begins at conception and this process terminates human life. Adult stem cells have been proved efficient as they have been used to treat diseases like Leukemia, Parkinson's diseases and spinal cord injuries unlike embryonic stem cells. (Lakoff, 1997)

The view of the conservatives is more convincing to me because: On death penalty,the government should not pity anyone for taking away an innocent life and for the embryonic stem cells research, it is inhuman to terminate life with the aim of doing research because an embryo is the first stage of human life and can be termed as murder.

References

Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96(5), 1029.

Lakoff, G. (1997). Moral politics: What conservatives know that liberals don't.